It might be easy to overlook this, but beyond the vast submarket of eBay markups and sneaker conventions, the sneaker world has a powerful audience in high-rise buildings and finely tailored suits. Matt Powell – the self-proclaimed Sneakerologist – attempts to bring a unifying perspective to both sneakerheads and people of finance with his latest submission to Forbes, “Sneakernomics: When Will The ‘Sneaker Cycle’ End?” In this feature, Powell addresses the subtle mumblings around the blogosphere (and surely somewhere in Beaverton) about the potential of a sneaker economy crash — an interesting endeavor given how many jobs, collections and lifestyles depend on the sustained interest in, well, kicks. While fairly summative, the author certainly sets some provocative ideas into play for all interested parties. With a key excerpt below, head over here to read the full piece, and open up a tab with Investopedia if necessary.

“The industry has been running at a mid-single digit CAGR since 2004. The best year was +10% and the worst, flat. While categories have ebbed and flowed, this chart really illustrates that we’ve been on a long run of growth for athletic footwear. I do not expect this trend to reverse any time soon.

When you look below the top line, there has been tremendous volatility by category but the topline rate has not faltered. We’ve had Basketball down and then up, Casual up and down and of course the Toning run up and meltdown. But through it all, consumers have continued to buy more and more athletic shoes every year.”